Latency locator

ABSTRACT

A method for capturing data packets sent on a network for evaluating response time performance, the network including a financial institution and a partner bank. The method includes associating a captured data packet sent to the partner bank with a captured data packet received from the partner bank, by comparing at least one coded field of a data portion of the captured data packet sent to the partner bank with at least one coded field of a captured data portion of the data packet received from the partner bank. The method also includes measuring a response time of the associated data packet received from the partner bank, relative to a transmission time of the captured data packet sent to the partner bank. The method further includes transmitting an alert message upon determining that the response time is not within an adjustable predetermined threshold, wherein the alert message includes data from a data portion of the associated data packets.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, claims priority to and thebenefit of, U.S. Ser. No. 11/932,508 filed on Oct. 31, 2007 and entitled“LATENCY LOCATOR,” which is incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to locating latencies infinancial transactions on a network, and, more particularly, tocapturing ISO 8583 messages, sent between a financial institution and acard issuing partner bank, for the purposes of evaluating whetherauthorization traffic along the network is being responded to in atimely manner.

2. Related Art

Consumers very often use financial transaction instruments as convenientforms of payment for purchases of goods and/or services(“goods/services”) instead of cash or checks. Traditionally, a“financial transaction instrument” is embodied as a card-shaped device,also referred to herein as a “card,” and may be any of the following: atraditional “plastic” transaction card (e.g., a credit card, a chargecard, a debit card, a pre-paid or stored-value card, or the like); atitanium-containing, or other metal-containing, transaction card; aclear or translucent transaction card; a foldable or otherwiseunconventionally-sized transaction card; or any other type of card usedin connection with a financial transaction.

A typical financial transaction involves a number of parties. Theseparties can have multiple roles, depending on the type of transaction.For example, in one type of transaction, the main parties involved caninclude a “customer,” a “merchant,” an “acquirer,” a “financialinstitution,” and a “card issuing partner bank.” In this example, thepartner bank (for example Citibank) issues a financial transactioninstrument such as a card to the customer, and the card is branded withthe name of the financial institution. When the customer uses the card,he or she swipes the card at the merchant's point of sale (POS) terminalin order to pay for the item.

The merchant's POS terminal sends the transaction to the acquirer. Theacquirer has connections to multiple financial institutions, since it isimpractical for each merchant to have connections to each financialinstitution. (However, in some cases, larger merchants act as their ownacquirer.) The acquirer delivers the transaction to the appropriatefinancial institution, which delivers the transaction to the appropriatepartner bank for authorization. Once authorization by the partner bankoccurs, the transaction returns to the financial institution, isdelivered to the acquirer, and then to the merchant's POS terminal. Itis of course to be understood that the above structure is only oneexample, and that various parties to the transaction can assume variousroles.

In order to enable a financial transaction to take place in the exampleprovided above, the financial institution, therefore, engages in arelationship with one or more card issuing partner banks, andcommunications and transactions occur over a network. Typically, afinancial institution's product (for example, software and/or hardware)is installed at the partner bank premises for connectivity into thefinancial institution's authorization network.

One problem is that authorization traffic from the partner bank, forexample, between the financial institution's product and the partnerbank, is often not responded to in a timely manner. Because of this,there is a need to monitor the authorization traffic and validatewhether in each case such traffic is being timely responded to so thatlatencies can be located. Previous approaches to solving this problemhave had drawbacks.

For example, in one conventional approach, a product is installed at thepartner bank premises for connectivity into the financial institution'sauthorization network, and servers are installed to log traffic. Whenthere is an issue with response times, the log is interrogated oranalyzed to determine if the partner bank caused the latency. However,this approach can be very time consuming, particularly if the financialinstitution has many partner banks connected to its infrastructure.Moreover, as a practical matter, there are limitations to the amount ofdata that can be stored, and support of the servers can be costprohibitive.

There is a need for a less time consuming and more cost effectiveapproach for locating latencies in authorization traffic in a network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention meets the above-identified needs by providingmethods, systems, apparatuses, and computer program products forcapturing messages, for example ISO 8583 messages, initiated by atransaction acquirer to a financial institution and sent between thatfinancial institution and a partner bank on a network for the purposesof evaluating and relaying response time performance.

One advantage of the present invention is that a less time consuming andmore cost effective approach can be provided for locating latencies inauthorization traffic along a network.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided a computer program product comprising a computer-usable mediumhaving control logic stored therein for causing a computer to capturedata packets on a network for evaluating response time performance, thenetwork including a financial institution and a partner bank. Firstcomputer-readable program code causes the computer to capture a firstdata packet sent from the financial institution to the partner bank, thefirst data packet including an authorization request for a transaction.Second computer-readable program code causes the computer to checkwhether the captured first data packet includes a first pattern in acoded field. Third computer-readable program code causes the computer tocapture a second data packet sent from the partner bank to the financialinstitution. Fourth computer-readable program code causes the computerto check whether the captured second data packet has a second pattern ina coded field that corresponds to the first pattern. Fifthcomputer-readable program code causes, upon determining that thecaptured second data packet has the second pattern, the computer tocheck whether at least one additional coded field of the captured seconddata packet matches at least one additional coded field of the capturedfirst packet to determine whether a match has occurred. Sixthcomputer-readable program code causes the computer, upon determiningthat a match has occurred, to determine whether a response time of thesecond data packet relative to a transmission time of the first datapacket exceeds a predetermined threshold, and, if so, to transmit analert message.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided a computer program product comprising a computer-usable mediumhaving control logic stored therein for causing a computer to capturedata packets in the form of ISO 8583 messages sent on a network forevaluating response time performance, the network including a financialinstitution and a partner bank. First computer-readable program codecauses the computer to associate a captured data packet sent to thepartner bank with a captured data packet received from the partner bank,by comparing at least one coded field of a data portion of the captureddata packet sent to the partner bank with at least one coded field of acaptured data portion of the data packet received from the partner bank.Second computer-readable program code causes the computer to measure aresponse time of the associated data packet received from the partnerbank, relative to a transmission time of the captured data packet sentto the partner bank. Third computer-readable program code causes thecomputer to transmit an alert message upon determining that the responsetime is not within an adjustable predetermined threshold.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided a method for capturing data packets sent on a network forevaluating response time performance, the network including a financialinstitution and a partner bank. The method includes associating acaptured data packet sent to the partner bank with a captured datapacket received from the partner bank, by comparing at least one codedfield of a data portion of the captured data packet sent to the partnerbank with at least one coded field of a captured data portion of thedata packet received from the partner bank. The method further includesmeasuring a response time of the associated data packet received fromthe partner bank, relative to a transmission time of the captured datapacket sent to the partner bank. The method further includestransmitting an alert message upon determining that the response time isnot within an adjustable predetermined threshold, wherein the alertmessage includes data from a data portion of the associated datapackets.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided a computer system including a processor and a memory storingcontrol logic for causing the processor to capture data packets in theform of ISO 8583 messages sent on a network for evaluating response timeperformance, the network including a card issuer and a partner bank.First computer-readable program code associates a captured data packetsent to the partner bank with a captured data packet received from thepartner bank, by comparing at least one coded field of a data portion ofthe captured data packet sent to the partner bank with at least onecoded field of a captured data portion of the data packet received fromthe partner bank. Second computer-readable program code measures aresponse time of the associated data packet received from the partnerbank, relative to a transmission time of the captured data packet sentto the partner bank. Third computer-readable program code transmits analert message upon determining that the response time is not within anadjustable predetermined threshold.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided a method for capturing data packets sent on a financial networkfor evaluating response time performance. The method includesassociating a captured data packet sent to a participant with a captureddata packet received from the participant, by comparing at least onecoded field of a data portion of the captured data packet sent to theparticipant with at least one coded field of a captured data portion ofthe data packet received from the participant. The method also includesmeasuring a response time of the associated data packet received fromthe participant, relative to a transmission time of the captured datapacket sent to the participant. The method further includes transmittingan alert message upon determining that the response time is not withinan adjustable predetermined threshold, wherein the alert messageincludes data from a data portion of the associated data packets.

Further features and advantages of the present invention as well as thestructure and operation of various embodiments of the present inventionare described in detail below with reference to the accompanyingdrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present invention will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings in which like reference numbers indicateidentical or functionally similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a network including various parties ina financial transaction according to an example embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart illustrating a method of the present inventionaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a computer system of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 4-6 show screen shots showing an example embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION I. Overview

The present invention is directed to methods, systems, apparatuses, andcomputer program products for capturing messages, for example ISO 8583messages, sent between a financial institution and a partner bank forthe purposes of evaluating and relaying response time performance. Withthe present invention, latencies can be located in authorization trafficalong the network and it can be validated whether authorization trafficalong the network is being responded to in a timely manner.

Of course, while the present invention is described in the context ofmessages sent between a financial institution and a partner bank, it isof course to be understood that the invention is not limited to such,and that the invention can readily apply to data messages sent betweenany two relevant parties in a network, at any applicable point in thenetwork. Communication between parties or hosts on any network canleverage the present invention to capture unique data fields from and tothe systems to resolve response time. Typical packet analysis tools canleverage the protocol that houses the data to determine response times;however, this can be misleading in that the protocol will respond withan ACK and not data, and therefore tracked response times are notvalidating the response of data being received to the request. This ispertinent in protocols not understood or decoded by the packet analyzer.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a data packet transmittedfrom a financial institution to a partner bank is captured, the datapacket relating to an authorization request, and a specific pattern(e.g., 1100) is searched for in a coded field of the data packet.Further, a data packet transmitted from a partner bank to a financialinstitution is captured, and a corresponding pattern (e.g., 1110) issearched for in a coded field of that data packet. Once a data packettransmitted from the partner bank is found which has a pattern (e.g.,1110) corresponding to the pattern (e.g., 1100) of the data packettransmitted from the financial institution, then one or more additionalfields of each data packet are compared to confirm that the additionalfield(s) match and that the packets correspond to each other. Suchadditional fields can include, for example, credit card number,transaction amount, reconciliation amount, date, time, etc. Once allmatches are confirmed, it is checked whether the response time exceededa predetermined time period (e.g., 2 seconds) and, if so, an alert issent to the financial institution's monitoring system. If no data packettransmitted from the partner bank, having corresponding and matchingfields as described above, is found within a second predetermined timeperiod (e.g., 7 seconds), it is determined that the response has timedout and an alert is sent to the financial institution's monitoringsystem.

II. System

The present invention is now described in terms of an exemplary systemin which the present invention, in an embodiment, would be implemented.This is for convenience only and is not intended to limit theapplication of the present invention. It will be apparent to one skilledin the relevant art(s) how to implement the present invention inalternative embodiments.

The present invention in one embodiment relates to transaction accountsof financial transaction instruments including traditional plastictransaction cards (e.g., a credit card, a charge card, a debit card, apre-paid or stored-value card, or the like), titanium-containing, orother metal-containing, transaction cards, clear and/or translucenttransaction cards, foldable or otherwise unconventionally-sizedtransaction cards, radio-frequency enabled transaction cards, or othertypes of transaction cards, such as credit, charge, debit, pre-paid,gift, or stored value cards, or any other like financial transactioninstrument. A financial transaction instrument may also have electronicfunctionality provided by a network of electronic circuitry that isprinted or otherwise incorporated onto or within the transactioninstrument (and typically referred to as a “smart card”), or be a fobhaving a transponder and an RFID reader.

With regard to use of a transaction account, users may communicate withcard issuers or merchants in person (e.g., at the box office),telephonically, or electronically (e.g., from a user computer via theInternet). During the interaction, the merchant may offer goods and/orservices to the user. The merchant may also offer the user the option ofpaying for the goods and/or services using any number of availabletransaction accounts. Furthermore, the transaction accounts may be usedby the merchant as a form of identification of the user. The merchantmay have a computing unit implemented in the form of a computer-server,although other implementations are possible.

“Merchant” includes any individual, business, entity, customer, hardwareand/or software that receives a card number to facilitate a transaction,whether or not in exchange for goods or services. For example, amerchant may be an online bookstore, or a local restaurant.

In general, transaction accounts may be used for transactions betweenthe user and merchant through any suitable communication device, suchas, for example, a telephone network, an intranet, the global publicInternet, a point of interaction device (e.g., a point of sale (POS)device, personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile telephone, kiosk,etc.), online communications, off-line communications, wirelesscommunications, and/or the like.

An “account,” “account number,” or “account code”, as used herein, mayinclude any device, code, number, letter, symbol, digital certificate,smart chip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or otheridentifier/indicia suitably configured to allow a consumer to access,interact with, or communicate with a financial transaction system. Theaccount number may optionally be located on or associated with anyfinancial transaction instrument (e.g., a charge, credit, debit,prepaid, telephone, smart, magnetic stripe, bar code, transponder orradio frequency card). The account number may be distributed and storedin any form of plastic, electronic, magnetic, radio frequency (RF),wireless, audio and/or optical device capable of transmitting ordownloading data from itself to a second device.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a relationship or network100 between various parties in a financial transaction according to anexample embodiment of the present invention. In this example, afinancial institution 120 controls and operates a Card authorizationSystem (CAS) 102, mid-range hosts 112, 116, regional hubs 110, 114, andproduct 108. CAS 102 is a system for authorizing transactions. CAS 102communicates with a merchant 104 through an acquirer 118, andcommunicates with a card issuing partner bank 106, which also has itsown card authorization system 107. CAS 102 can, for example, send a datamessage to the partner bank 106 for authorization. Regional hubs 110,114 and mid-range hosts 112, 116 include hardware (e.g., routingequipment) and software for maintaining the connections of the networkbetween the parties.

In the structure described in FIG. 1, CAS 102 is utilized to switchtransactions between a merchant 104 and the card authorization system107 of the partner bank 106. The main purpose of a card authorizationsystem is to authorize transactions, and that is the main function ofthe card authorization system 107 of the partner bank 106. As such,there can be great dependency on the partner bank 106 to respond in atimely manner.

It is of course to be understood that the invention is not limited tothe structure of the network shown in the example provided in FIG. 1,and that the diagram illustrated in FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram. Forexample, a plurality of merchants or partner banks can be part of thenetwork, and other parties, hubs, or mid-range hosts can also be part ofthe network. Moreover, a merchant may be connected directly to a partnerbank.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a product 108 (for example,a software and/or hardware product) operated by the financialinstitution 120 is installed at the premises of the partner bank 106 forconnectivity into the financial institution's authorization network 102.Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) traffic between the financialinstitution's product 108 on-site at the partner bank 106 premises andthe partner bank's network is monitored to validate or confirm thatauthorization traffic is being responded to in a timely manner.

In one embodiment of the present invention, ISO 8583 messaging protocolis utilized in processing authorizations. ISO 8583 is an InternationalOrganization for Standardization standard for systems that exchangeelectronic transactions made by cardholders using transaction cards.FIG. 4, which is explained in further detail below, shows an 1100pattern and shows that both the 1100 pattern and 1110 pattern are inoffset 2 of the data portion of the packet. Other fields, such as creditcard, transaction ID, and transaction amount show their offset in FIG.5, which is also explained in further detail below. It is of course tobe understood that the present invention is not limited to use with onlyISO 8583 messages.

Accordingly, the present invention can look at anything in the dataportion of a packet, and therefore can be used for any protocol havingdata. For example, the present invention can look at an FTP filetransfer for the start of the file transfer and then look for the end ofthe file transfer. Then it would have the duration of the file transferand can pull the file name and size from the data. Items such as thiscan be very useful in checking response times and durations, and inpulling unique information from packets.

III. Process

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart illustrating a method of the present invention,according to one embodiment. In step S202, the method is initiated. Instep S204, the method captures a data packet or packets sent from afinancial institution 120 to a partner bank 106, each data packetrelating to an authorization request for a transaction. In step S206 themethod checks whether the data packet includes a coded field in the formof a specific first pattern (e.g. 1100) located in the data portion ofthe packet. If the data packet does not include a coded field in theform of the specific first pattern that was searched for (S208), themethod returns to step S204. If the data packet does include a codedfield in the form of the specific first pattern that was searched for(S210), the method proceeds to step S212.

In step S212, the method captures a data packet sent from the partnerbank 106 to the financial institution 120. In step S214, the methodchecks whether the data packet captured in step S212 (i.e., a datapacket sent from the partner bank 106 to the financial institution 120)has a coded field in the form of a second pattern (e.g., 1110) thatcorresponds to the first pattern (e.g., 1100). If not (S232), thecaptured packet is not an authorization response message, and the methodproceeds to step S234 to check whether the total time period hasexceeded a predetermined period for time-out (e.g., 7 seconds). If thetotal time period has not exceeded the predetermined time period (S236),the method returns to step S212; if it has (S238), the method proceedsto step S240 and an alert is sent that the partner bank 106 has timedout.

If (step S216) the data packet captured in step S214 (i.e., a datapacket sent from the partner bank to the card issuer) has a secondpattern (e.g. 1110) that corresponds to the first pattern (e.g. 1100),then the method proceeds to step S218 to check whether one or moreadditional fields of the data packets having the corresponding patternsmatch. The additional fields can include the credit card number, thetransaction amount, the transaction ID field, the reconciliation amount,etc. If one or more additional fields of the data packets captured insteps S204 and 5206 do not match (S242), an alert is sent in step S244,and the method proceeds to step S234 to determine whether the total timeperiod has exceeded a predetermined period for time-out.

If one or more of the additional fields do match (S220), then the methodproceeds to step S222 to determine whether the response time exceeded apredetermined time period (for example, 2 seconds). The response time isthe time period starting when the data packet was handed off from thefinancial institution 120 to the partner bank 106, and ending when thecorresponding data packet was transmitted from the partner bank 106 tothe financial institution 120. The method is observing thepacket/request go to the partner bank from the financial institution'slast point of ownership to the portion of the network owned by thepartner bank, and is then observing the packet/response come from thepartner bank to the first point of ownership of the financialinstitution. If the response time exceeded the predetermined time periodfor response (S224), an alarm or other indicator is sent in step S226,and then the process ends (S246). If the response time did not exceedthat predetermined time period (S228), then the method ends in stepS230.

As described, then, the method of FIG. 2 includes analyzing the dataportion of a packet, matching coded fields, and comparing additionalfields, to verify that the response from a partner bank 106 is theresponse to each specific authorization request.

As also described in the method of FIG. 2, automated alerts toauthorization messages (e.g., ISO 8583 messages) can be received when apartner bank 106 does not respond within a predefined threshold or timeperiod. Accordingly, data can be acquired to determine which party—e.g.,the partner bank 106 or the financial institution 120—has impactedservice level objects. Without this data, for example, a financialinstitution 120 may be unable to determine whether a partner bank 106negatively impacted the transaction and, therefore, the financialinstitution 120 may be unfairly penalized.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the method is automated andcan quickly send important information about a specific transaction to acentral monitoring station to the financial institution 120. Forexample, instead of waiting for notification from the CAS 102 as to theissues that occurred in the previous day and manually looking into aremote log file thousands of miles away, alerts can be sent as theproblem occurs to the central console or monitoring system and theproblem can be addressed immediately with all the data from thatparticular transaction.

The present invention can therefore pick any portion of theauthorization message and send that portion in, for example, a SimpleNetwork Management Protocol (SNMP) alert. In this way, whatever data isrequired from that transaction for the financial institution 120 toinform the partner bank 106 of the issue is available. Information suchas credit card number, transaction amount, date, time, etc., can becompared from the sent authorization request to the response from thepartner bank 106 to validate that the response time calculated isrelated to the exact transaction originally sent. Further, the compareddate can be sent along with any additional data required in a trap (e.g.a Simple Network Management Protocol or SNMP notification or alert) tothe central console.

Accordingly, the present invention provides one-time trouble shootingfor proactive monitoring and online alerting. In one embodiment of thepresent invention, TCP/IP headers can be ignored and determinations canbe made not only based on the data, but also based on comparing data ofmultiple packets to find two that match, and then pulling informationfrom the data portion of the packet to send as an alert. This can benecessary in dealing with ISO 8583 messaging.

The present invention in one embodiment is a packet capture tool orapplication that can monitor, filter, alert, store, etc., packets asthey cross a network segment. The following are screen shots of thepresent invention in one embodiment. The hardware and software of thepresent invention may be called a “probe.”

FIGS. 4-6 are screen shots showing an example embodiment of the presentinvention. FIG. 4 is a screen shot showing triggers of probe alarmsettings for a search. The probe may for example be incorporated intothe product 108 of the financial transaction institution 120. Accordingto FIG. 4, an alarm is triggered for each transaction that matches theselected patterns and that exceeds the specified response timethreshold. In this example, a pattern is part of an ISO 8583 message.

The Request Match Field of FIG. 4 shows that a packet, among the packetsbeing sent from a financial institution 120 to a partner bank 106, isbeing searched for that has the pattern 1100 in its data portion at adata offset of 2 bytes. Then, as FIG. 4 shows in the Response MatchField, a packet, among the packets being sent from the partner bank 106to the financial institution 120, is being searched for that has thepattern 1110 in its data portion at a data offset of 2 bytes.

As shown in the View/Edit Tracked Fields of FIG. 4 (see also FIGS. 6 and7), additional fields can be entered for comparison in order to validatethat the response matches the request sent. Further, FIG. 4 shows thethresholds that are set. In this example, a Threshold for Response canbe entered, and a Threshold for Timeout can be entered. If the partnerbank 106 response is over 2 seconds (2000 ms), the partner bank 106 hasexceeded the response threshold and an alert is sent. If the partnerbank response is over 7 seconds (7000 ms), or the partner bank 106 doesnot respond, an alert will be sent stating that the partner bank 106 hastimed out.

FIG. 5 is a screen shot showing tracked pattern match fields and trackednotification fields, in which tracked fields can be modified. The fieldsdefined in the Pattern Match Fields portion of FIG. 5 are comparedbetween the sending and responding messages (i.e. the data packetshaving patterns 1100 and 1110, respectively, in FIG. 4), in order tovalidate that the appropriate messages are being evaluated. The fieldsbeing matched in this example are credit card number, transactionamount, and reconciliation amount (of course, the present invention isnot limited to these fields). The Pattern Match Fields and NotificationFields are sent to a central monitoring console if the thresholds areexceeded.

FIG. 6 is a screen shot showing the definition of the first trackedfield, i.e. the credit card number field. In the Edit Tracked Fieldinterface, all options can be configurable and no item is staticallyassigned; accordingly, items other than packets having correspondingpatterns (such as 1100 and 1110) can be tracked for responsiveness.

Accordingly, the present invention in this embodiment goes beyond merelylooking at TCP/IP headers and performs pattern matches on any portion ofthe packet. The present invention not only performs matches on apattern, such as the 1100 field mentioned above, but waits to receive apacket having an 1110 field as well. Once a packet having an 1110 fieldis received, the fields in the match section of each packet are comparedto confirm that they are all the same. For example, if the credit cardnumber, amount, date, and time in the packet having the 1100 field matchthose in the packet having the 1110 field, the present inventioncompares the times it saw each packet to see if the packet having the1110 field that matches came back from the partner bank within thepredetermined time period (e.g. 2 seconds). If it did not exceed thatthreshold, nothing is done. If it did exceed that threshold, an alarm islogged, a beep sounds (or another indicator indicates), and an SNMP trapis sent to a central console of the card issuer. There also are optionsto send a page and an email, if necessary.

The present invention in this embodiment tracks the time it takes apartner bank 106 to respond to the data packet having the specifiedpattern (e.g., 1100) with a data packet having a corresponding pattern(e.g., 1110), at the point at which the partner bank 106 is connected tothe card issuer's network. The time can be tracked in each transactionto provide alerts when a partner bank 106 responds too slowly or not atall, and to provide trending reports to monitor gradual gains or spikesin response times. An alert provides enough information about thetransaction so that the transaction can be isolated in CAS 102 and thepartner bank 106 can track it on its side. Information such as creditcard number, date, time, Stan ID or transaction ID, etc. can beprovided. The alert can be an alarm, a text message, or any othersuitable form. The alert can contain “real” data from the data portionof the packet and can be unique to the data that is in the packet.

The following is a description of specifications for a system accordingto one example embodiment of the present invention. Of course, thepresent invention is not limited to this example.

The system may have two fields for ISO messaging, e.g., variable lengthand any offset in the data portion of packet. For example, 1100, 1110,1200, 1210, 1120, and 1130. The system may have three fields formatching content in the packet to validate that the request and theresponse are part of the same transaction. The field for the responsetime may be set at, e.g., 2 seconds, with the ability to vary thatresponse time. For example, the response time may be varied down to,e.g., 1/10 of a second, or more or less than that.

Internet Protocol (IP) addresses can be used for source and destinationpacket addresses. This can be part of another filter used in conjunctionwith this filter. The system can send a trap containing 4 fields fromthe data packet. The location and size from the data portion of packetcan be flexible.

The following describes example logic, which may be used in a computerprogram of the system for carrying out the present invention accordingto an embodiment thereof.

Example Logic:

IF pattern = 1100 (user defined data portion of packet) THEN wait “userdefined period of time (8 Sec)” for 1110 with match criteria IF foundTHEN subtract 1100 time from 1110 time (This data can be provided to thetrending report) IF diff time >= 2 seconds (user defined interval) THENAlert “Partner Slow” ENDIF ELSE Alert - “No Partner Response” ENDIFENDIF

By virtue of the features described herein, the present invention canidentify which party (partner bank 106 or financial institution 120)caused a latency in responding to an authorization request. The presentinvention can eliminate brand or expense impacts of a financialinstitution 120 encountered due to partner-bank latency by identifyingall partner-bank caused latency issues.

The present invention can improve network performance by monitoring allpartner banks as to whether responsiveness is being maintained.Furthermore, even knowing that the partner banks are responding in atimely manner, by identifying latency issues the present invention canhelp a financial institution identify internal authorization issues morequickly.

While the present invention is described in terms of locating latenciesin authorization traffic along a network between a financial institution120 and a partner bank 106, the invention is of course not limited tothat situation. The present invention can also determine whethermerchant requests are being responded to by a financial institution 120and a partner bank 106 in a timely manner. Further, the presentinvention can be broadly applied to analyzing messages and locatinglatencies in any data communication between a plurality of parties orhosts. Accordingly, the present invention can be broadly applied toother applications and industries. For example, the present inventioncan be used by manufacturing companies that need to maintain anytimeliness of traffic and aren't able to perform that monitoringfunction with regard to typical tools.

Any network traffic that requires keying off of data contained in a dataportion of a packet can utilize the present invention to monitorresponsiveness of traffic. Of course, as noted earlier, the presentinvention isn't limited to supporting only ISO 8583 messaging; othertypes of messaging can be supported.

The present invention, as described herein, can passively capturetraffic on a network segment. In one embodiment, hardware and/orsoftware comprising a product is connected to a switch (packetanalyzer), with the switch port the product is connected to having asubsequent port pointed to it for monitoring its traffic. In thisexample, a partner bank is connected to the financial institution'sproduct, which may include routers and switches installed at the partnerbank's location for network connectivity to the partner bank's network.The product can include circuits that then connect back to the financialinstitution. One port, where the partner bank is connected on eachswitch, can have the traffic of those ports spanned or copied from thatport to the port where a packet analyzer having the features of thepresent invention is connected. The software can be installed on anyhardware platform running, e.g., Windows XP. The hardware component caninclude network interface cards for capturing traffic on each of theswitches and for management/sending traps. Accordingly, it is understoodhow a hardware component may be connected in accordance with an exampleembodiment of the present invention, and how the hardware component canhave access to the traffic between a financial institution and a partnerbank.

IV. Example Implementation

The present invention or any part(s) or function(s) thereof) may beimplemented using hardware, software, or a combination thereof, and maybe implemented in one or more computer systems or other processingsystems. Useful machines for performing some or all of the operations ofthe present invention include general-purpose digital computers orsimilar devices.

In fact, in one embodiment, the present invention is directed toward oneor more computer systems equipped to carry out the functions describedherein. An example of such a computer system 300 is shown in FIG. 3.

The computer system 300 includes at least one processor 304. Theprocessor 304 is connected to a communication infrastructure 306 (e.g.,a communications bus, a cross-over bar device, or a network). Althoughvarious software embodiments are described herein in terms of thisexemplary computer system 300, after reading this description, it willbecome apparent to a person skilled in the relevant art(s) how toimplement the invention using other computer systems and/orarchitectures.

The computer system 300 includes a display interface 302 that forwardsgraphics, text, and other data from the communication infrastructure 306(or from a frame buffer (not shown)) for display on a display unit 330.

The computer system 300 also includes a main memory 308, whichpreferably is a random access memory (RAM), and may also include asecondary memory 310. The secondary memory 310 may include, for example,a hard disk drive 312 and/or a removable-storage drive 314 (e.g., afloppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, and thelike). The removable-storage drive 314 reads from and/or writes to aremovable storage unit 318 in a well-known manner. The removable storageunit 318 may be, for example, a floppy disk, a magnetic tape, an opticaldisk, and the like, which is written to and read by theremovable-storage drive 314. As will be appreciated, the removablestorage unit 318 includes a computer-usable storage medium having storedtherein computer software and/or data.

In alternative embodiments, the secondary memory 310 may include othersimilar devices for allowing computer programs or other instructions tobe loaded into the computer system 300. Such devices may include aremovable storage unit 322 and an interface 320 (e.g., a programcartridge and a cartridge interface similar to those used with videogame systems); a removable memory chip (e.g., an erasable programmableread-only memory (“EPROM”) or a programmable read-only memory (“PROM”))and an associated memory socket; and other removable storage units 322and interfaces 320 that allow software and data to be transferred fromthe removable storage unit 322 to the computer system 300.

The computer system 300 may also include a communications interface 324,which allows software and data to be transferred between the computersystem 300 and external devices (not shown). Examples of thecommunications interface 324 may include a modem, a network interface(e.g., an Ethernet card), a communications port, a Personal ComputerMemory Card International Association (“PCMCIA”) interface, and thelike. Software and data transferred via the communications interface 324are in the form of signals 328, which may be electronic,electromagnetic, optical or another type of signal that is capable ofbeing received by the communications interface 324. These signals 328are provided to the communications interface 324 via a communicationspath 326 (e.g., a channel). The communications path 326 carries thesignals 328 and may be implemented using wire or cable, fiber optics, atelephone line, a cellular link, a radio-frequency (“RF”) link, or thelike.

As used herein, the phrases “computer program medium” and “computerusable medium” may be used to generally refer to a removable storageunit 318 used with the removable-storage drive 314, and/or a hard diskinstalled in the hard disk drive 312, for example. These computerprogram products provide software to the computer system 300. Thepresent invention may be implemented or embodied as one or more of suchcomputer program products.

Computer programs (also referred to as computer control logic) arestored in the main memory 308 and/or the secondary memory 310. Thecomputer programs may also be received via the communications interface324. Such computer programs, when executed, enable the computer system300 to perform the features of the present invention, as discussedherein. In particular, the computer programs, when executed, enable theprocessor 304 to perform the features of the present invention.Accordingly, such computer programs represent controllers of thecomputer system 300.

In an embodiment where the present invention is implemented usingsoftware, the software may be stored in a computer program product andloaded into the computer system 300 using the removable-storage drive314, the hard drive 312, or the communications interface 324. Thecontrol logic (software), when executed by the processor 304, causes theprocessor 304 to perform the functions of the present invention asdescribed herein.

In another embodiment, the present invention is implemented primarily inhardware using, for example, hardware components such asapplication-specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”). Implementation ofsuch a hardware arrangement so as to perform the functions describedherein will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s).

In yet another embodiment, the present invention is implemented using acombination of both hardware and software.

V. Conclusion

The various embodiments of the present invention described above havebeen presented by way of example and not limitation. It will be apparentto persons skilled in the relevant art(s) that various changes in formand detail can be made therein (e.g., different hardware, communicationsprotocols, and the like) without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe present invention. Thus, the present invention should not be limitedby any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should bedefined only in accordance with the following claims and theirequivalents. It is also to be understood that the steps and processesrecited in the claims need not be performed in the order presented.

In addition, it should be understood that the attached drawings, whichhighlight the functionality and advantages of the present invention, arepresented as illustrative examples. The architecture of the presentinvention is sufficiently flexible and configurable, such that it may beutilized (and navigated) in ways other than that shown in the drawings.

Further, the purpose of the appended Abstract is to enable the U.S.Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especiallyscientists, engineers, and practitioners in the relevant art(s), who arenot familiar with patent or legal terms and/or phraseology, to determinequickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of thetechnical subject matter disclosed herein. The Abstract is not intendedto be limiting as to the scope of the present invention in any way.

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon aplurality of instructions, in response to execution by a computer-basedsystem for capturing data packets on a network for evaluating responsetime performance, performs operations comprising: capturing, by thecomputer-based system, a first data packet, the first data packetincluding an authorization request for a transaction; capturing, by thecomputer-based system, a second data packet; determining, by thecomputer-based system, that a response time of the second data packetrelative to a transmission time of the first data packet has exceeded apredetermined threshold; and transmitting, by the computer-based system,an alert message in response to the determination that the response timeof the second data packet relative to the transmission time of the firstdata packet has exceeded the predetermined threshold.
 2. Thecomputer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the alert messageincludes data from a data portion of the first and second packets, thedata including at least one coded field, the authorization request, andthe response time.
 3. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1,wherein the predetermined threshold is adjustable.
 4. Thecomputer-readable medium according to claim 3, wherein the adjustablepredetermined threshold is about 2 seconds.
 5. The computer-readablemedium according to claim 3, wherein the adjustable predeterminedthreshold is adjustable to millisecond intervals.
 6. Thecomputer-readable medium according to claim 1, further comprisingtransmitting a warning message in response to determining that no seconddata packet is captured having a second pattern within a predeterminedtime period.
 7. The computer-readable medium according to claim 6,wherein the predetermined time period is 7 seconds.
 8. Thecomputer-readable medium according to claim 6, wherein the predeterminedtime period is adjustable to millisecond intervals.
 9. Thecomputer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the alert messageincludes at least one of a date, a time, a credit card number, atransaction amount, a reconciliation amount, a position in the datapacket, a length of the field, and the response time.
 10. Thecomputer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the data packetsare ISO 8583 messages.
 11. The computer-readable medium according toclaim 1, further comprising transmitting a warning message in responseto determining that a match has not occurred.
 12. The computer-readablemedium according to claim 1, wherein a determination is automaticallymade on the origin of a delay based upon a transmitted coded field datawithin the alert message.
 13. The computer-readable medium according toclaim 12, wherein a penalty for the delay is validated based upon thedetermination of the origin of the delay.
 14. The computer-readablemedium according to claim 1, further comprising determining that thefirst data packet includes a first pattern in a coded field anddetermining that the second data packet includes a second pattern in thecoded field that corresponds to a first pattern of the first datapacket, and wherein the first packet and the second packet each containa header portion and a data portion distinct from the header portion,and wherein the coded field and the at least one additional coded fieldof the first packet are contained within the data portion of the firstpacket, and wherein the coded field and the at least one additionalcoded field of the second packet are contained within the data portionof the second packet.
 15. The computer-readable medium according toclaim 1, wherein each additional coded field is one of a date, a time, acredit card number, a transaction amount, a reconciliation amount, aposition in the data packet, and a length of the field.
 16. Thecomputer-readable medium according to claim 1, further comprisingdetermining a match between an additional coded field of the second datapacket and an additional coded field of the first packet.
 17. Thecomputer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the alert messageincludes coded field data from a portion of at least the first datapacket or second data packet.
 18. The computer-readable medium accordingto claim 1, wherein the determining that the response time of the seconddata packet relative to the transmission time of the first data packethas exceeded a predetermined threshold, is in response to adetermination that a match has occurred between an additional codedfield of the second data packet and an additional coded field of thefirst data packet.
 19. A computer based system, comprising: a computernetwork communicating with a memory; the memory communicating with aprocessor for capturing data packets on a network for evaluatingresponse time performance; and the processor, when executing a computerprogram, performs operations comprising: capturing, by the processor, afirst data packet, the first data packet including an authorizationrequest for a transaction; capturing, by the processor, a second datapacket; determining, by the processor, that a response time of thesecond data packet relative to a transmission time of the first datapacket has exceeded a predetermined threshold; and transmitting, by theprocessor, an alert message in response to the determination that theresponse time of the second data packet relative to the transmissiontime of the first data packet has exceeded the predetermined threshold.20. A method comprising: capturing, by a computer-based system forcapturing data packets on a network for evaluating response timeperformance, a first data packet, the first data packet including anauthorization request for a transaction; capturing, by thecomputer-based system, a second data packet; determining, by thecomputer-based system, that a response time of the second data packetrelative to a transmission time of the first data packet has exceeded apredetermined threshold; and transmitting, by the computer-based system,an alert message in response to the determination that the response timeof the second data packet relative to the transmission time of the firstdata packet has exceeded the predetermined threshold.